Phantasm films.?

Question

I just don't get it. My daughter got the box set for Christmas. We watched all 4 films over the last few days. Can anyone explain what it all means. The first film I found hard enough to understand, after that I was clueless.

Answer 1

...well, director Don Coscarelli had always meant to write the "Phantasm'" films with a certain enigmatic and dreamlike vagueness, with the first movie ending with questions, and each successive movie, answering some of those questions, but adding yet more questions to the mystery, as well as blurring the line between fantasy and reality; they might as well be considered, for lack of a better phrase, 'middle-of-the-road' type of horror films, as you either like them intensely, or you don't like them, due to the enigmatic and confusing aspects of the story and visuals...

...to more or less put things in 'reader's digest' perspective, the storyline goes like this: Two estranged brothers, along with their friend, a burnt-out, middle-age ice cream vender, find themselves reluctantly caught up in horrific intrigue and bloodshed, when they inadvertantly stumble upon the evil and insideous doings of a tall and menacing caretaker and his monstrous and obedient minions, who are stealing fresh corpses from their local cemetery, crushing them down to dwarf-size, packaging them in barrels, and transporting them to the 'tall man' planet, where they are used as slaves...

...one of the brothers, despite the blurring of reality and fantasy, is supposedly killed by the 'tall man', and the other brother takes the reluctant ice cream vendor on the road, to find his brother's killer, and to find a way to stop the 'tall man', before he can ravage further cemeteries. Along the way, the 'tall man' leaves traps & averting signs for the hapless and intrepid duo, who continue to stumble upon unexpected allies (...including the young man's dead brother); some of these allies sometimes do a 180 turn-around, and become enemies/weapons (...dwarves, zombies, armed & multi-bladed silver-sphered sentinals, etc.), under the influence of the 'tall man'; the young brother also begins to realize that he shares an unusual, almost supernatural rapport-like relationship with this towering and demonic apparition, who repeatedly attempts (...and sometimes succeeds) in capturing the young man, and transforming him into one of his kind...

...as the story continues, we find out that the 'tall man' originally was a kindly cemetery caretaker and inventor, who in creating a trans-dimensional rift in time and space, by means of a crude mechanical device, inadvertantly releases a monstrous manevolent force from beyond, which possesses the old man's body, and commences a painstakingly years-long gradual reign of terror, until the two brothers come along, thus bringing things full circle...

...of course, if you saw the fourth and (...so far) final film, you are well aware that it was left quite open, for more story to be told, whatever and whenever that may be...

Answer 2

I do not really understand your question. Phantasm means phantasy in french, ghost in spanish and nothing in english.

so you have to inspire your translation with these words according to the content of movies.

Answer 3

thyre meant to be horror films but they where from the eightys and not scary at all i think the paulbearer was meant to be some sort of grim reaper who collected souls and placed them in an PARAREL UNIVERSE OR SOMETHIONG LIKE THAT ITS BEEN A WHILE SINCE I SEEN THEM